Having seen this first hand ( in my previous work life ) the Storms Melbourne HQ and their “ system” need to be seen to be believed.
Their owners , backers , spend far more than any other club on every single thing you can imagine to achieve almost perfection.
Much is attributed to Bellamy , and fair enough , but the system that club have built since its inception is second to none & I have little doubt when Bellyache eventually retires it will continue unabated regardless of who takes over.
They employ the very best of people in every role , and there’s a team for every role.
I got a look at two of their areas , sports nutrition and their rehabilitation set up.
I know we’ve sent Tom to Philadelphia ( and the Storm sent Papy there too ) but their rehab system is to be seen to be believed , there’s probably 30 people involved in just that one section and with the very top knee , shoulder , wrist , elbow etc etc specialists at their beck & call , it’s a whole football department within a football department.
We had a presentation from a sports nutrition expert , there’s about 15 in that team, what every single player eats , drinks , ingests is extremely carefully controlled & designed individually for that player. Think “ Hello Fresh “ on steroids. I actually asked the question about what their families ate and the response was “ we work with each player , their wives ( girlfriends etc etc ) to ensure the player sticks rigidly to “ the plan “.
It’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t seen it but I’d suggest they spend tens of millions on their system , staff , facilities etc etc.
By comparison I bet Manly spend not a cent more than what’s allocated to them by the NRL, meaning their rehab set up ( using this as an example ) might have 2-3 staff , and you can bet they’ll have a sports nutritionist as well , but it would be A sports nutritionist not a team of 15.
It always annoys me on Silvertails when we get compared to the top ( rich) clubs because my view there’s just no comparison.
God love the Penn’s ( because without them we mightn’t even have a club ) but it’s very clear to me that if,
1) the salary cap is 13 million , we spend 13 million and maybe a little extra with third party sponsors.
2) if the football department cap is 5 million , we spend 5 million and not a cent more.
We will always be a middle of the road club ( sadly ) , and have been since the Penns took over 100% control.
Until we magically find a very rich benefactor who for the fun of it wants to throw 20 million a year extra into the club we will always run where we run.